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wutsinterweb3
End Citizen's United
Premium Member
join:2014-08-26
USA

wutsinterweb3

Premium Member

computer drops wireless connection frequently

My laptop frequently drops wireless connection on my BIL's router frequently. Laptop is a Lenovo G580. The laptop also drops connection with my own wireless from time to time, but there's no apparent frequency to when it happens, no obvious cause that I can see. I think that a number of owners of this model have a similar problem, so I'm wondering if there is some certain arcane setting to change in the properties of the wireless controller.

Another problem I keep having is the darned touchpad goes haywire and I have to reboot about once or twice a day, seems to be a driver issue and using the latest driver.

Camelot One
MVM
join:2001-11-21
Bloomington, IN

Camelot One

MVM

When you run into wifi issues with different APs, the first thing to try is different driver versions. The latest aren't always the best, and the latest on the Lenovo site are rarely the latest available. Find your wireless model and search around.

If all else fails, replacement wifi cards are cheap. I think the G580s came with a single band n card with a Realtek chip. I much prefer the Intel wireless cards. Ebay is a good place to get them dirt cheap.

BlueMist
join:2011-01-24
Cookeville, TN

BlueMist to wutsinterweb3

Member

to wutsinterweb3
It seldom happens but the wireless cards do have connectors to feed the antennas in laptops. You might want to open the cover over your wireless card and verify the connectors are pushed onto the card all the way.

wutsinterweb3
End Citizen's United
Premium Member
join:2014-08-26
USA

wutsinterweb3

Premium Member

Thank you guys. I already checked the connections, if I shop on eBay for an Intel, how do I know which are compatible?

Camelot One
MVM
join:2001-11-21
Bloomington, IN

Camelot One

MVM

The easiest way is to look up the specs on the card you have, and look for the same form factor and antenna setup.

wutsinterweb3
End Citizen's United
Premium Member
join:2014-08-26
USA

wutsinterweb3

Premium Member

Ok, I looked on eBay and when it comes to form factor, I don't know the names of them, but some seened oblong while others seemed narrow sided. And mine has 2 wire connections.

MacGyver

join:2001-10-14
Vancouver, BC
·TELUS
Actiontec T3200M
Arcadyan WE410443-TS
Sipura SPA-2102

MacGyver

Looks like you might need to load a hacked BIOS to get an alternate WLAN card to work in this thing. »www.bios-mods.com/forum/ ··· -removal

On a side note, my wife has a G570 with an Atheros card I think, and has absolutely no problems with it. If she did, I'd hear about it real quick sorry you're having problems with your G580.
asdfdfdfdfdf
Premium Member
join:2012-05-09

asdfdfdfdfdf to wutsinterweb3

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to wutsinterweb3
Couldn't you go with a usb wifi adapter such as

»www.newegg.com/Product/P ··· -Product

or

»www.newegg.com/Product/P ··· -Product

wutsinterweb3
End Citizen's United
Premium Member
join:2014-08-26
USA

wutsinterweb3

Premium Member

I could but I need the usb ports sometimes.

BlueMist
join:2011-01-24
Cookeville, TN

BlueMist

Member

I know you checked the connections but check out this link. Seems quite a few of these came out with the antenna wires reversed.

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· SZkOPFMM


As for a replacement, a quick Google search for "Lenovo G580 wireless card" minus the quotes brought up identical replacements for your laptop from around $2 to $30. Just check out shipping costs as some places pad the shipping costs to make up for a lower initial item price. True most if not all of them are used but on the lower end of the price range the odds are with you.

wutsinterweb3
End Citizen's United
Premium Member
join:2014-08-26
USA

wutsinterweb3

Premium Member

Yes, did check that, found that before, tried it, after changing it the amount of disconnects did reduce, but they still happen.

How can I get ahold of the white list to my computer? I don't dare mess with the BIOS, I cannot afford to brick this thing.

BlueMist
join:2011-01-24
Cookeville, TN

BlueMist

Member

said by wutsinterweb3:

How can I get ahold of the white list to my computer?

I have not seen a copy of the list myself. From reading the Lenovo and other forums they appear to not have it in writing where we can read it, just hidden in the BIOS. Chats to Lenovo support asking if specific wireless cards were compatible have been answered by Lenovo techs with "We don't know what works either."

Sounds like they don't want to give out the information thinking correctly that people will stop ordering replacement cards from them if the White List gets published.

Hopefully someone else around here knows where a copy of it is and can post the list or a link to it.

wutsinterweb3
End Citizen's United
Premium Member
join:2014-08-26
USA

wutsinterweb3

Premium Member

Thank you thank you for looking into this so hard. I guess I should have bought an ASUS laptop, they seem to be the best choice for a mid range product these days. Though I don't know if it would have made a difference for this sort of issue.

What is the point of replacing the card (getting the same thing again) if the problem is the card not being a good card rather than being defective?) It seems a number of people are having this problem with this model. I love the keyboard and the screen, but three things that are disspointing are the lack of LEDs for things like hard drive activity, a flaky touch pad driver (both the original and the replacement), and a flaky wireless controller. Oh, and another problem, you can't make a restore "disk" (supposed to do it with a thumb drive, I've tried and tried and it doesn't work).

BlueMist
join:2011-01-24
Cookeville, TN

BlueMist

Member

said by wutsinterweb3:

Oh, and another problem, you can't make a restore "disk" (supposed to do it with a thumb drive, I've tried and tried and it doesn't work).

Not sure about doing the thumb drive method but here is a link showing how to still do a backup using either Windows 7 or Windows 8 on this beast. Seems both use the same Windows 7 backup program that Microsoft sent out with both OS versions.

»answers.microsoft.com/en ··· e5567089

Andre Da Costa's entry or Gordon B-P's entries sounds like they will do the trick. I'd plug in your USB drive first and see if the back up program will allow you to choose it rather than an internal/external HD.

Still it sounds like you may have to make a bootable system repair disk in order to restore things as well, and the backup program should offer to make it for you.

Good luck with your machine.

As for the white list, all that seems to show up is how to basically jailbreak the BIOS to eliminate it from contention.

When it comes to the identical replacement wireless cards, there is no guessing whether the they will work any better than what you have but at the low price range it still might be worth giving one a try since you don't want to risk the BIOS modification.

Looks like I was lucky when I bought one of the early G530 models when they came out. The beast works fine and I was even able to swap out the internal drive for a SSD and stuff W8.1 into it with little problem.

My old laptop may be slower than the new units but it has been a good workhorse when it comes to troubleshooting problems at customer sites. With the SSD installed I no longer have to worry about vibration trashing a drive while moving about with it powered on. I just have to try and not drop it hard enough to break the case or screen.

wutsinterweb3
End Citizen's United
Premium Member
join:2014-08-26
USA

wutsinterweb3

Premium Member

TRiec That but when I try to run the restore onto a new drive it reports partitions missing
wutsinterweb3

wutsinterweb3

Premium Member

Update, tried reversing wires and reconnecting as one of the wires become disconnected. My laptop wireless transfer speed is a third of my BIL/Sister's 2 laptops, they get about 60 MPS or more, I get about 20-30 MPS on their network. He has a brand new router, I don't recall the model, but he spent plenty on it and read up to make sure he got a nice model.

I'm not willing to risk BIOS change and brick the laptop because I cannot buy another one, but if there's another model that would work, maybe I could do that...